Apple suggests holding it differently or shielding the lens with your hand

If you've ever seen a purple haze or spot on your iPhone images/videos, Apple has offered an explanation -- you're holding it wrong.

IPhone 5 users have complained that a purple haze or a purple spot has shown up on videos and still images from out-of-scene bright light sources. According to Apple, the cause is the position of the light source and can be fixed by simply holding the phone at a different angle.

Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.

I am not sure what you are trying to prove here Tony... This is an issue reported by a great deal of iPhone 5 owners. That is all I have said about it and all I have to say about it. Not sure what "reality" that breaks.

I was hoping that article would be a bit more interesting.. Of course; aspherical distortion, lens flare, and corona effects (such as the given example in your article) have been common in camera lens since the beginning; often being used to create dramatic effects in the days before digital cameras bled all of the skill out of the industry.

But this is not your standard optical distortion; and can obviously only be caused by lens coatings (such as the scratch-proof sapphire coating on the iP5's camera) or problems with the image processing.

Of course, this can easily be fixed by shading the lens or picking a different angle (as photographers have been doing for decades) -- but given the photographic skill of most Apple users, you can't be surprised that this didn't occur to them especially given the fact that they are already composing a shot where the light source is behind the subject.

The article would have been a great read had they at the very least had a gallery of several test shots taken by each smartphone they claimed to have tested, so we don't just have to take their word for it . Otherwise, they exude a journalistic caliber even our good friend Jason Mick easily surpasses..

For most casual photographers, the goal of taking a picture is to capture a moment the way you are seeing at that moment in time. In the sample photo, the sun glare is expected, but the purple coloring is not. Your eyes would take in the sun glare and produce a similar flare, but it doesn't turn purple.

As an aside, your tone suggests you are a bore, good sir. :) People take pictures for their own enjoyment.